Integrated circuit devices are well-known in the prior art. Such devices or so-called "dies" are normally designed to be supported or carried in a hermetically-sealed "package" having a plurality of pins or leads. The package serves as a carrier and as a heat sink and is normally square or rectangular in shape. It includes a cavity in which the integrated circuit die is placed. After the integrated circuit is secured in the cavity of the package, typically a component "lid" is placed over an exposed surface of the circuit. A bottom surface of the lid includes a "pre-form" material such as epoxy or solder that is used to secure the lid over the circuit to provide a protective cover. The pre-form is cured by placing the package in a furnace.
During such manufacture, it has also been known to secure the component lid against the integrated circuit die to prevent movement of the lid during curing of the pre-form. This is typically accomplished through the use of a pressure clip that is latched onto the package. After curing, the clip is removed. Throughout one or more steps in the process, the integrity of the die and the placement of the lid on the die are evaluated to determine whether a correct package assembly exists. A correct package assembly is said to exist when the lid is properly aligned. If the assembly satisfies these conditions, the package is accepted. If a correct package assembly is not found to exist, the package is rejected.
While such processing steps are known in the art, there have been several problems associated with such manufacturing methods and systems. It has been difficult to place and secure the package lid on the integrated circuit die and then inspect the lid in an accurate and consistent manner so as to facilitate a high volume, continuous manufacture of component packages. As noted above, if a correct package assembly is not achieved, a significant investment in the costly integrated circuit device may be lost. Accurate placement and inspection of the lid on the die is thus critical to providing acceptable results.
To overcome the problems associated with the prior art, it has been known to use manual or semi-automatic machines to place the lids on component packages. Such machines have been marketed by the Cybex Technologies Corp., the assignee of the present application, under Model Nos. LDP-150 (manual) and LDP-1000 (semi-automatic). While such machines have proven especially useful in enhancing the accuracy and reliability of the lid placement, these machines do not enable lids to be applied during the actual flow into the furnace and they cannot provide production efficiencies capable of supporting large volume operations.
Therefore, there remains a long-felt need in the semiconductor industry to provide for improved methods and apparatus for manufacturing integrated circuit component packages in a high volume, cost-efficient and reliable manner while simultaneously decreasing the percentage of packages rejected due to improper lid placement or other defects during such processing.